No Time for Celeb Activists

Gideon Rachman, the FT's chief foreign affairs columnist, offers a humorous and insightful take on the proliferating role of celebrities in development, debt-forgiveness and poverty reduction. George Clooney, Bono, Graydon Carter and Angelina Jolie all take hits from Rachman's wickedly poisonous pen.

"There is something unedifying about an unelected celebrity intimidating politicians," he writes. Indeed. Especially when, as Rachman notes, "they see things in the stark and simple terms favoured in Hollywood movies, rocks songs and the speeches of US president George W. Bush."

Isn't it just a little too easy for Bono or Brad Pitt to tell us what the solution is to complex issues such as underdevelopment? I think it is. On the other hand, I find my respect increasing exponentially for Mia Farrow. She has for many months been writing insightful and passionate op-eds in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere on the atrocities in Darfur and China's connection to the Sudanese regime.

"As Khartoum's largest and closest business partner, China has provoked outrage from the international community for underwriting genocide in Darfur. In recent months, Beijing has responded with steadily increasing talk about its commitment to promoting peace in the region. But it has taken no meaningful action."

This is good stuff. Unlike some celebrities, who seem to fit their advocacy in between film premiers and shopping for yachts, Ms. Farrow seems to have devoted herself entirely to this issue. Perhaps that's why Gideon Rachman leaves her out of his column? And I say good for her -- keep it up (and show the rest how it's done!).

Making the Internet Connection

"Innovation is possible literally anywhere that the internet is in operation," says Vint Cerf, Google's "Chief Internet Evangelist," in an interview with Andrew Edgecliff-Johnson of the Financial Times. Of the 6.5 billion people in the world, however, only 1 billion have access to and use of the internet. What does that say about the untapped potential for global innovation?

Cert highlights some of the challenges to extending internet connectivity to greater numbers of people around the globe. These range from infrastructure and capacity building (such as electricity and training) to security and privacy concerns.

"If we ever move into a regime where the providers of basic internet service have any control over what users can put on the network as an application, then I see a potential hazard to innovation. At the present time, this is still a very open system."

As Evan O'Neil points out elsewhere, there are ethical issues related to the process of extending connectivity that may not be immediately apparent. Getting laptops into the developing world is a noble venture. But what if development is not the only motive?